The Best Skyscraper in Canada

Back on June 21st 2014 the concrete slab for Brookfield Place was poured over the course of about 25 hours. There were over 65 trucks that delivered 680 loads of concrete which works out to 5,788 cubic meters. 200 people were involved in this rather large operation that disrupted traffic in downtown Calgary.

This massive slab of concrete will essentially hold up the building that is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2017. Brookfield will be about 10 meters taller than the Bow, so it will take on the title of the tallest building outside of Toronto. However, Brookfield won’t hold that title for long because the new Stantec tower that is under construction in Edmonton will be about 6 meters taller than Brookfield.

Will Edmonton hold the title of tallest building outside of Toronto for long? Probably for many years, since there is a massive amount of office space available in Calgary right now with the collapse of energy prices, and it doesn’t look like there will be a recovery any time soon. So, we certainly won’t see any new office buildings that can challenge Stantec for many years. However there could be a mixed use building that is partly residential condo units mixed with some office space built in the near future, that is taller than Brookfield. Telus sky is a building that is pretty tall at around 220 meters and is actually going to be taller than the Suncor Energy Centre, and it will have mostly condos that will be offered for rent.

This video is a very interesting because it shows all the rebar that is required for such a large project and also shows the concrete pour happen from start to finish with a time lapse. The finished product looks nice and smooth but I wonder how long it took for all that concrete to set. I would think that they would have to wait at least a week before they started building on top of the slab. Another thing that is really interesting from the video is the sheer size of the hole that they have dug for this building. I do believe there will eventually be a second building, but I am not sure if it will fit in that existing hole, or if it will require another one that is just as big. Anyway it is always interesting to see how these massive buildings are built from start to finish. I will try to find more videos that show the rest of the construction of this building as it rises to it’s final height.